June 2010

06/06/2010

Well...new look. So while everyone is watching the MTV Movie Awards...I feel like it's time to discuss Chatelaine's new design under fairly new editor Jane Francisco.

When I first saw the cover - see here: http://ow.ly/i/1vsY - my immediate thought was "This looks like the '90s...C'MON CANADA." I don't know...maybe it was the model's makeup? I don't feel it reflected how cool the redesign is.

Some things I love - Question of the Month at the start of the mag...June's is "What's the most important thing you learned from your father?" Wonderfully insightful.

- Things to Love. Image heavy, fun fonts - adore this.

- Ms. Chatelaine - a profile on a lady of "style and substance." Could've been contrived. Ended up being pretty cute with images of favourite things, "telling details." It's all in the layout though - it looks fresh...they were not afraid of white space.

The feature that really stood out for me in terms of fresh layout is the "Do Diet." The use of lines to divide up the do's, varying their thickness. They also switched from serif to sans serif fonts without being annoying, and obviously bold simple images.

Lastly, a nice touch to the end of the magazine - a dreamboard. Again...could be really lame, I could see the potential. But I think the whole magazine kind of has this cottage-y, home-y, excited feel (perhaps because it's the start of summer) - it's whimsy adds to the whole vibe. This month's guest is Joannie Rochette too so s nice to see this by her after the loss she suffered earlier this year.

Anyways, kudos for a great new look Chatelaine! The one good thing about the cover is that I deeply appreciate the Breton stripe :)